It was a sad thing to watch Arsenal play Bayern Munich the other night, it felt almost like Bayern were punching Arsenal in the goolies with one hand whilst sending non-chalant tweets about how it was doing so with the other. Chelsea bravely battled but found that no matter how hard they pushed Fernando Torres against the opposing defence, he still couldn’t finish, whilst recent reports from insiders at Real Madrid, Dortmund and Ajax have confirmed that the teams were unaware that Man City were even in their group. Only Manchester United have impressed this season, sauntering to what is practically the League title, and facing a climbable mountain in the form of Real Madrid in the Champions League. It’s strange, now we are left with what is practically a write off for Arsenal and a decent maybe for United, whilst other top English clubs eye Europa League fixtures and promise us that they care about them, no really, they do! Honest!
It’s strange because we can all remember the height of the (irritatingly named) noughties, when it was a surprise if all four English teams didn’t reach the quarter finals. It’s distressing to see these teams struggle in the face of top European opposition. I know at this point those of you unfortunate enough to be Chelsea fans will be pointing wildly at last season’s Champions League victory, which whilst impressive, was a massive underdog story in which they were never outright favourites. It’s just not the same anymore.
It’s not even just the teams at the top (apart from Managetowinallthetimechester United) other teams in the premier league are showing a massive reduction in quality that has been highlighted by their frankly embarrassing performances in the League and F.A Cup this season. Up until recently incidences of ‘Giant Killings’ were reserved for instances of complete chance, Knights of the round table and future Jewish Kings, now it seems anyone is in with a shot! One great example is me talking to my Dad (also a Millwall fan) and both genuinely agreeing that Millwall could have Aston Villa in the F.A Cup, turns out we were right which is really embarrassing for Villa.
The Premier League table as a whole is a lot tighter this year (apart from Mangonnaprobablynickoneinthe89thminutechester United) which is interesting, sure, but few teams (apart from Manhandlingth- oh never mind) are looking invincible like some of the teams of recent years gone by. It is possible that the rest of Europe is catching up and that standards of football are rising generally, La Liga and the Bundesliga are rising in quality fast, the Italian league is experiencing a renaissance and the French League is doing its best to look like a decent league. Bless.
Perhaps there is a changing of the guard happening which we have to accept, but I’d rather see some top players and managers come to the Premier League and put an end to this period of stagnation by filling the league with the sort of teams that make clubs on the continent fear a trip across the channel.
Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of qualifying bets. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply
Click to ClaimJack produces topical blogs for Howtobet4free tackling the key issues in the world of sport. Jack also publishes articles for a number of publications each week, and can be found on Twitter by following @JWinterr.
